Board of Directors
Bonnie Zimmermann
Executive Director
Project Leader – International affairs, ecotourism, public education, avian management
Bonnie has been involved with parrots for over almost thirty years. Like many people in the avian world, she started as a “pet owner” but gradually evolved to where she is today, working to promote education, rescue, rehabilitation and enrichment for parrots confiscated from the illegal trade in Indonesia, and developing programs to protect and study endangered parrots in their natural environment.
She joined the board of IPP in 2003 as the director of ecotourism, and co-founded Kembali Bebas with Dr. Stewart Metz in 2004. Kembali Bebas is an avian rescue, rehabilitation and release center located in North Seram, Maluku which to date has released over 1800 endemic species of parrots and cockatoos successfully into the wild. She leads that project as well as protecting a species of cockatoo that is on the brink of extinction located on a remote island in the Java Sea. She has conducted and performed field work in Belize, Peru and Indonesia. She lectures at domestically and internationally to conservation organizations, universities and scientific organizations.
She has been a resident of the Napa Valley for over twenty years, and lives in Pope Valley with a motley crew of elderly rescued parrots and works of course … in the wine business at a small family winery on the top of Spring Mountain.
Lisa Lawrence
Associate Director
Lisa Lawrence is a native of California, born and raised in the San Francisco bay area. She has lived with her husband, Carl on their small farm in Occidental, California for the past 28 years. She keeps horses, goats, chickens and has a pinot noir vineyard. She enjoys making cheese, soap and lotion from her goat’s milk. She is the proud mother of two grown children, Myles and Lilly. She enjoys travel and has been involved in bird and iguana rescue and funding projects for a school in Honduras for several years. Her life is never dull as she also lives with six rescue cockatoos.
Richard Thorpe, Ph.D.
Secretary
Richard Thorpe is Co-Founder and Director of the Animal Education Foundation, a Washington, DC-based organization dedicated to improving the lives of companion parrots and other animals through behavior, training, and enrichment solutions. He shares his life with two cockatoos, two cats, and his wife Kathryne, an accomplished trainer. He is active in local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organizations, including the Wildbunch Foundation, Dogue Hollow Animal Sanctuary, and the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia. A Lifetime member of the Indonesian Parrot Project, he also supports the World Parrot Trust, Parrots International, and the World Wildlife Fund.
Also, an avid history buff, he serves as Vice President of the Friends of Colvin Run Mill in Fairfax County, Virginia, and volunteers as an apprentice miller and millwright at the two-hundred-year-old grist mill. He earned his Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of California .at Berkeley and has focused his professional career on environmental restoration and nuclear waste storage.
Barbara Bailey
Co-Founder
Barbara Bailey has loved birds all her life. When she was eight, she got her first budgie and has rarely been without an avian companion since that time. Following a trip to Australia, she became enamored with cockatoos and currently has 10, all of Indonesian descent. After a 30 year career as a speech pathologist, she began devoting more of her life to saving the bird she loves. She founded Tucson Avian Rescue & Adoption which successfully placed over 500 birds in its 12 years of operation. Barbara and Stewart Metz first went to Indonesia in 2001, three weeks after 9/11. That trip changed both of their lives. They were captivated by the birds, the people, the culture and the absolute beauty of the islands. In 2003, Barbara and Stewart founded Indonesian Parrot Project. Barbara made many trips to Indonesia until illness forced her to stop. However, she remained active in IPP. Barbara is also on the advisory board of The Oasis Sanctuary.
Hillary Hankey
Behavior & Training
You could probably credit Hillary’s four companion cockatoos for helping her ditch the plan to go to veterinary school after graduating from Colorado State University and following the less conventional path to exotic animal training. Training her birds has inspired her to achieve personal goals of the endless pursuit of self-mastery and authenticity, and as owner of Avian Behavior International, there is one thing this endeavor has taught her for certain. That is that ABI would not be where it is today were it not for the unwavering support of family, friends, staff, and loved ones.
Upon graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in Biology, instead of going ahead with the plan toward veterinary school, Hillary’s passion for her childhood parrots led her toward a less conventional path to exotic animal training. Her trained cockatoos became neighborhood icons and the highlight of community events. Seeking out some of the best minds in the field from which to learn has led her to incredible opportunities, including working for Steve Martin of Natural Encounters and for the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. As a behavior consultant for the animal education facility Wild Wonders in Bonsall, California, she expanded her work to include foxes, wild cats, and other exotic mammals.
Hillary is also committed to conservation, traveling with the Indonesian Parrot Project, to see the wild Moluccan Cockatoo and other rare birds in Seram, Australia to see wild black cockatoos, and the Brazilian Pantanal to observe the nesting Hyacinth Macaws. In 2010, she founded Learning Parrots, a consulting practice designed to provide resources for companion bird owners to understand and implement positive reinforcement. Hillary’s avian adventures across the planet, commitment to ethical standards of behavior management, and passion for helping others achieve results with positive reinforcement have earned her the reputation as a dynamic workshop coach and engaging speaker for a wide variety of audiences across the country.
Steward Metz, M.D.
Founder
Stewart Metz (1947-2017) was the former Executive Director and Founder of the Indonesian Parrot Project. He left the medical profession in 2001 out of a deep concern about the threat of extinction of some of the planet’s most magnificent birds (especially the cockatoos of Indonesia), as well as the mistreatment of many of these creatures when sold into captivity. That concern led him and Barbara Bailey to co-found the Indonesian Parrot Project.
IPP Advisory Board
Lara Joseph – The Animal Behavior Center
Lara is the owner of The Animal Behavior Center, LLC in Ohio. She presents workshops, travels, lectures, gives regular webinars, and consults focusing on positive reinforcement interactions and modifying behavior through applications in behavior analysis. She is also the Director of Animal Training & Enrichment for a wildlife rehabilitation center where she focuses on taking stress out of animal environments. She is the founder of The Parrot Society of NW Ohio and The Parrot Society of New Orleans brining focus to parrot owners on behavior concerns, approaches in training, and the importance of enrichment.
Lara is a professional member of The Animal Behavior Management Alliance, The International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators and sits on the Advisory Board for All Species Consulting and The Indonesian Parrot Project. She is also a past board member of Nature’s Nursery, a wildlife rehabilitation center. She writes for The American Federation of Aviculture, The Pet Professional Guild, Deaf Dogs Rock, My Safe Bird Store, and more. Lara has presented for a wide variety of animal care organizations such as The Philadelphia Zoo, The Ohio State Exotic Veterinary Club, The Association of Avian Veterinarians, The International Wildlife Rehabilitator’s Conference, The Parrot Lover’s Cruise, and The Wheaton College division of Applied Behavior Analysis. For more information visit her website at TheAnimalBehaviorCenter.com.
Adam Miller – Executive Director & Founder, Planet Indonesia International
From the time Adam was just a young child he has been fascinated by the world around him. He was first exposed to avian conservation issues in Indonesia when he was 10 years old. Since then he has dedicated his life to the conservation and development of this region of the world.
He graduated with honors from the department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University. Through his undergraduate career he worked on a number of research projects throughout the United States, Central America, and Australia. After graduation he was selected for the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship through the U.S. State Department to Indonesia in 2013. He has published a number of articles in collaboration with some of the top scientists in conservation biology and is dedicated to advancing the field of conservation both as a practitioner and as a researcher. His work has led him around the globe, but Indonesia has been near to his heart since the time he was just a child.
He is dedicated to finding innovative win-win solutions that benefit both humans and the environment through economic feasibility and sustainability. Without innovative multidisciplinary approaches to the issues we face today humans fall out of balance with the world around them. Adam believes Planet Indonesia is a platform for social innovation that is utilizing modern models and approaches that have the ability to restore balance and harmony to the world around us.
George Olah, Ph.D. – Wildlife Messangers & IPP Scientific Advisor
Jessica Lee, Ph.D. – Wildlife Reserves Singapore & IPP Scientific Advisor
Birds, especially parrots and cockatoos, have been a passion for Jessica for as long as she can remember. Born in Singapore, but growing up in Australia, I have a background in veterinary sciences and molecular biology, but made the decision to pursue conservation after volunteering at a parrot rescue center in Costa Rica. Jessica spent over eight years in the field as a conservation ornithologist, working with three threatened black cockatoo species as part of her academic pursuits for BirdLife Australia.
Jessica is currently based at Wildlife Reserves Singapore, parent company of the Jurong Bird Park, Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and River Safari, as conservation & research manager. She also is the manager of our local charity-based fund that supports conservation and education work in Singapore and in other regions of Asia. She presently supports two projects of the Indonesian Parrot Project.
Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia (KKI)
In 2008, IPP formed an Indonesian non-governmental organization (“perkumpulan”) in Indonesia, Konservasi Kakatua Indonesia (Cockatoo Conservation, Indonesia). Our partners in KKI in Indonesia are Dudi Nandika, Senior Field Researcher and Dwi Agustina, Programs Coordinator.
Dudi Nandika
Sekretaris
Dudi Nandika received his S.Si. Degree (the equivalent of a U.S. Bachelor of Science degree) in 2005 from the Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, As-Syafi’iyah Islamic University, Jakarta, Indonesia. There, he was Head of the Association of Biology Students, and Coordinator of Education and Training of the Observor Bird Club. Dudi has a particular interest in bird-watching, and in parrots and cockatoos. He carried out a field study of a subpopulation of the extremely endangered sulphurea subspecies of Lesser Sulphur-crested cockatoos, which resulted in a publication in PsittaScene (the journal of the World Parrot Trust):
“Recent Observations of the Critically-endangered Sulphurea Subspecies of Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Rawa Aopa Watumohai National Park, SE Sulawesi, Indonesia ” ( Volume 18, No. 1, February 2006).
Dwi Agustina
Program Coordinator
Dwi Agustina received her S,Si. Degree (the equivalent of a U.S. Bachelor of Science degree) in 2005 from the Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, As-Syafi’iyah Islamic University, Jakarta, Indonesia. There she received the award as the Best Student III in 2006. She has carried out research in primate behavior and water bird monitoring.
In 2005, Dwi presented her research ” Distribution and Population Status of the Sulawesi Hawk-Eagle Spizaetus lanceolatus Temminck & Schlegel, 1844, at Rawa Aopa Watumohai National Park, SE Sulawesi,” at the 4th Symposium on Asian Raptors, in Taiping, Malaysia in 2005.
IPP Partners & Sponsors
